Wow, hard to believe that 2015 is almost over already! This year, Poptropica turned 8 years old, released 7 new islands (including finishing off the last episodic islands of 2014, Arabian Nights and PoptropiCon), gave Poptropica Realms to all of us, improved the Poptropica app, became poised to expand to new types of media (like comic books and hopefully TV as well!), and so much more! Here's Poptrickia's review of all of 2015, the good, the bad, and the ugly (well, very little ugly):

Arabian Nights got an incredibly successful finale in Episode 3. It was interesting to see a Poptropica Island that is so deep and ends with an actual message. Even though the island pushed the theme of how bad greed is, it wasn't cheesy or annoying at all, and actually made the island more enjoyable in my opinion.

A surprising total of 3 sponsored islands were released this year: Galactic Hot Dogs, Mystery of the Map, and Timmy Failure. Interestingly, all three were based on comic books (Mystery of the Map was based on Poptropica's own comic book series of the same name). Add this to the fact that Poptropica's been closely tied with Funbrain in the past, and you can see that a lot of Poptropica's target demographic is heavily interested in comics and reading, which probably influences how even their original islands are developed.

As for the islands themselves, the reactions were fairly the same for each: good art and music, but weak storyline. Galactic Hot Dogs in particular got called out for its laughably easy gameplay.

that all of these islands were sponsored (meaning based on other franchises),

the sharp increase in new sponsored islands being made,

Poptropica's recent acquisition by a new company (Sandbox Networks)

and their plans to rapidly expand to other things like merchandise, comics, and even a TV show

And came to the conclusion that Poptropica is coming under some minor financial strain, and dealing with it by increasing the value of Membership (somewhat aggressively though) and making more sponsored islands

Although by now, all indications are that Poptropica is recovering well. The Creators kind of paid us back in their own way with the many giveaways of Credits this year (e.g. tripling the amount of credits given for winning islands, all the freebies leading up to Timmy Failure Island, and the Daily Pop-in Prizes). Credits can't buy Early Access to new and locked islands anymore (not since 2010 I think), but they do give non-Members much more access to the Store (which Members can just borrow infinite items from).

And finally to finish off 2015 on a high note, the incredible and original Escape from Pelican Rock Island recently came out for all players after what must have been the shortest Early Access period of all time: a mere three weeks! I gave it a review that you can read in detail, but suffice it to say that Poptropica has set a new bar for the quality of the storyline, music, and general development of their future original islands :)

Last but not least, the mobile app got quite a few upgrades that brought it close to the quality of the desktop version, including many multiplayer features and importing desktop looks. No logging in has been implemented yet, though, and islands no longer cost money, so it looks like the app is going to be free for all. And Poptropica Realms has also come along quite well, adding many immersive features as well as sharing.

The post doesn't end here -- click Read More below to see more New Year's stuff!

Welcome to the end of 2014! Among other things, it's officially too late for us to get our hoverboards and flying cars now. Now that the year is basically over, I want to go over the things that gave this year its reputation for Poptropica. Not to mention Poptropica's 7th birthday this year and that epic costume!

Survival and PoptropiCon went on to be some of the most popular islands ever released, and pretty much every review of Survival is a rave review. Myron Van Buren turned out to be a spine-tingling and iconic villain, and PoptropiCon went meta by making costumizing an actual part of the quest. Still unexplained is the connection between the aliens shown in Lunar Colony and Mission Atlantis. And of course, that underground adventure island that we thought was Legendary Swords revived, might become a new island.

Poptropica's been growing up a lot and changing in ways that the first players in 2007 could have never imagined. First, the most infamous of all -- episodic islands. Introduced with Survival Island this year and continuing through Mission Atlantis, PoptropiCon, and Arabian Nights, this is the system of breaking up an island into smaller sections that are released over a longer time period.

Though the intentions of the episodic island system were good, and it personally didn't bother me very much (it actually made it easier to create guides and videos), it caused quite a bit of dissent among the majority of Poptropicans. Maybe that's why, starting next year, Galactic Hot Dogs Island (and following islands) will return to the full-length style!

Of course, one of the most amazing things to happen in Poptropica's history happened in February this year -- Monster Carnival Island was released! Monster Carnival was actually one of the oldest islands to be designed; it was announced that it would release some time in 2008, after Time Tangled, but was mysteriously pulled and replaced by 24 Carrot Island. Well, six years later, it returned in all the glory of the new Poptropica engine with a soundtrack and some of the best animations of any island before! One of the oldest mysteries of Poptropica put to rest -- you can read about it on the Wiki and also the Creators' explanation.

The next thing isn't something that comes and goes like episodic islands and the Monster Carnival mystery. This year, Poptropica finally went mobile with the iOS app early this year and the recently released Android app! For the first time, you can play full islands and episodic islands that are SUI's. (On that note, Mythology and Shrink Ray Islands were converted to SUI form this year!)

Lately Poptropica has also become involved in social media, Twitter especially, and taking an interest in the activities of Poptropica fans online. They're also releasing sneak peeks and other fun stuff on their Twitter. You might want to follow them (and me)!

My favorite thing from this year -- Poptropica Land! Very early in this year, Poptropica Labs was released for Members, in which you could drag around pre-made props, adjust the sea level, and blow things up in small themed sandbox-like scenes. It was an experiment that would lead to the more full-featured Poptropica Land. It's a world that constantly generates randomized scenes as you explore, and with the help of a magical hammer, you can build and destroy the world at will. For a couple weeks, it was open to the public during the land contests, but next year it'll come out of beta and everyone will get to have a piece of Poptropica Realms (the new name)!

Let's see, what else... Oliver and Jorge of course! This year Poptropica started its own online comic strip starring two boys, Oliver and Jorge, who hop from island to wacky island and generally destroy each one in hilarious fashion. Next year it's returning with a new season as well as a real comic book!

And on to some of the saddest news from this year. Shark Boy, the longtime Creator, slowly had his identity peeled away from Poptropica. Creators' Blog posts he made were either deleted or transferred to Captain Crawfish, His username was changed to "Shark Guy," and all references to him on the game have disappeared (except for the man in the suit on the lowest floor of the Shark Museum). Even though I'd love to see him back, it seems that this was caused by a legal dispute with a wrestler named Shark Boy. Oh well, stuff happens, but at least that mystery is cleared up.

And that covers the major events of 2014! It was a fun year, full of crazy changes and brilliant islands, and already it seems like we can expect even more from 2015 -- Galactic Hot Dogs Island, an old island idea being revived, Poptropica Realms, and so much more. Plus, Poptrickia is going to turn five years old in April! Let me know if you have any party suggestions. This year, I resolve to post frequently and make island guides within 36 hours of the island's release. I also want to maybe find some other voices from the community to post on Poptrickia some of the time, just to shake things up; we'll see about that later. Happy new year!

This is Poptrickia, serving you tips, tricks, cheats and more on the awesome game Poptropica for free since 2010! We've got this blog (we call it the Journal), full written walkthroughs for every island and quest in existence, and videos too!